Saturday, 15 July 2017

Crispy Ambulance ‎– "Frozen Blood (1980-82)" (LTM ‎– ltmcd 2327)

To round up our short ride in a crispy ambulance,here's the obligatory Singles,and sessions compilation from the Ambulance's best years before they broke up for the first time. Allegedly, they are together again and touring.(Wasn't there a Half Man Half biscuit tune where the line 'You're Going Home In A Crispy Ambulance' was chanted in a football terrace chant stylee?)This includes a high fidelity version of their Peel session from january 1981, which you should already have downloaded on the "Blue and Yellow Of the Yacht Club" cassette.Also we have the first three singles on Factory, and some live stuff to fill it up with.Do 'they' call this stuff 'Cold Wave' these days? I dunno, but the term seems to safely describe the Isolation one feels when listening to this band; not helped by the fact that not many of your mates thought that they were any good .A myth spread by the music media of the early eighties.Like a fine wine this music has matured nicely into a full bodied frozen blood Manchester red, thawed out from the vintage years of 1980-82.

Perhaps the press torpedoed the band as you note Jonny. However this Yank's dubious observation that regardless of the music quality the band was destined to be derided due to the silliness of their name if for nothing else. Am I going to tell my friends I'm into something called Crispy Ambulance? No fucking way. Same for Kitchens of Distinction, Prefab Sprout and a hundred others. Sling your arrows for my American shallowness if you like. The band name is stupid and it wouldn't matter if they were all gods that made the greatest post punk music known to man. Their moniker makes them toast.

Cival Disobedience is good:

“Civil disobedience is not our problem. Our problem is civil obedience. Our problem is that people all over the world have obeyed the dictates of leaders…and millions have been killed because of this obedience…Our problem is that people are obedient allover the world in the face of poverty and starvation and stupidity, and war, and cruelty. Our problem is that people are obedient while the jails are full of petty thieves… (and) the grand thieves are running the country. That’s our problem.”